DEAR EDITOR

I refer to the proposed badger cull in Wales, supposedly set up to lessen bovine TB.

I am surprised that Elin Jones AM and Christianne Glossop, the Chief Veterinary Officer for Wales, can set up a scheme without any controls and therefore unscientific and worthless. It will be impossible to establish whether any decrease in TB is as a result of killing badgers or purely as a result in enforcing better farm practices.

It also goes against scientific evidence that shows a badger cull to be uneconomic and with limited benefits, if any.

I am amazed that she has not been called before professional bodies overseeing veterinary practice and equally surprised that leading scientific academics in Wales have so far kept quiet.

It is a pity that the newly appointed Scientific Adviser for Wales will not be in post until May.

I hope that one of his first tasks will be to call in this barbaric, callous and contemptible scheme and reduce the disgrace that it has already brought to Wales.

Derek Hector
Whitchurch
Cardiff
CF14 1BA.